


A Sun Left to Shine

by TrenchcoatRats



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Zack Lives, But mostly fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 04:42:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15526269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrenchcoatRats/pseuds/TrenchcoatRats
Summary: With as many major changes as there were, some things were bound to stay the same. In a world where Zack survives, Geostigma still runs rampant, and everyone still hits rock bottom at some point. But, there’s still hope that the flower girl will come through for them, that the planet will heal, and most importantly, that the family of Zack, Cloud, and the three children they’ve basically adopted will get through this whole mess.





	A Sun Left to Shine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kitsunebaba](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsunebaba/gifts).



While the two of them will never replace his actual parents, Denzel can see Zack and Cloud ending up as his sort of uncles. The two act like a perfect team, masterful mother hens to each child they come across in Edge. Zack’s quick to offer food, or easy labor with plenty of pay for the more stubborn kids. The younger ones swarm to him when he has a big smile or an exciting story to share. Cloud’s quieter, but not colder by any means. The older kids, the ones like Denzel, who remember watching their world burn down then later rot away in a single flash of green light, sit nearby as he patches their clothes and heals their scrapes and bruises. Sometimes he hums songs that none of them have ever heard before, or shares stories from a language no one speaks anymore, but often times the children spend their time with Cloud in comfortable silence.

He’s still surprised that the two of them only have three children staying at the house, given how they look after everyone they come across. Denzel was the first, followed by Sera, who came with her younger brother. Her brother’s very sick and spends more of his time down at the church with Miss Aerith then he does at the house but Denzel likes him well enough. His sister’s not so bad either, even when she hits him with that Moogle doll. When they’re all together in the house, laughter seems to fill up the whole place, and Denzel can put the pulsing pain from his forehead to the side. When he catches Cloud bent over with laughter, Zack hoisting a shrieking Sera up in the air, and Sera’s brother giggling madly, he thinks they all put their pain aside too.

But there are bad days too. Days when Zack spends the day in the spare room, with his sword, and with the door locked. Even when he’s not walking nearby, Denzel can hear the sound of sobbing coming from the room. There’s days where Cloud doesn’t know where he is, days when he stares off into space, scratching his bare hand bloody and raw as quickly as it heals. Sometimes, Sera’s brother doesn’t come back from the church for days and days, and Sera clutches the Moogle doll tighter, snaps at Denzel more, and shrinks further and further into herself. Sometimes, Denzel remembers the fires blazing after the plate fell, the smell of rotting from Ms. Ruvie’s still warm body, and his forehead oozes black gunk and doesn’t stop. But the worst are the days when Denzel forgets what his mother was wearing before the plate fell. When the sound of his father’s voice slips away, no matter how hard he clings to it. On those days, Cloud’s always the one who reaches out to him. And the two anchor each other as long as Denzel needs.

On the good days, the best days most times, Denzel goes with everyone down to the church to see Miss Aerith. Miss Aerith works on a cure for their disease every day she can and she always has something to numb the pain if she doesn’t have any progress updates. She always has a smile for the children, a laugh and hair ruffle for Cloud, and a hug that seems tighter than can ever be comfortable for Zack. Neither of them ever mind it, often grabbing Aerith and turning the tables on her and filling the church with indignant screeches from all the adults and bemused looks from the children. Miss Aerith gives them flowers, real flowers, and sings to the planet. Sometimes, the planet sings back and lets Miss Aerith chip away at the disease bit by bit each time. Even when the planet doesn’t sing, Miss Aerith still makes everyone feel welcome, feel safe. 

Each time they leave, Zack and Cloud invite her to come over to their house whenever she wants and Miss Aerith always smiles and runs to give them an extra tight hug. But she never comes over. Denzel’s never seen her leave, no matter how many people have come in seeking healing, or how late it is. He wonders if she has any place left to go, or if she, like Denzel and so many other children in Midgar, has had her home destroyed by Shinra, or Meteor. Once, when Miss Aerith bent over to pick some flowers for the kids in Edge, Denzel caught sight of a nasty scar. It was pink, seemingly irritated, and stretched from Miss Aerith’s shoulder down into her dress. He wonders sometimes if Miss Aerith ever has bad days of her own.

Of course, even worse days are to come. The worst comes on the heels of three silver-haired men that Denzel’s never met before now. They hang around Midgar, spending their time with the kids that Zack and Cloud look after and care about so much. They seem to be looking for someone, or something. But Denzel doesn’t know what. He’s not allowed to go out to see them, neither is Sera, or her brother. And after the worst day since Meteor, when he catches a glimpse of the three men unsettlingly close to Cloud, with one of them wrapping his arm around Cloud’s shoulder like they’re old friends, and hears Cloud and Zack screaming at each other until their voices go hoarse, neither is Cloud.

Things are tenser in the house after that. Geostigma is the worst it’s ever been and everyone is in so much pain. So they all slip up, one after the other. Cloud leaves one morning before anyone’s awake. The other children and the three silver-haired men also disappear that same day. The only reason Denzel knows this is because when Zack comes back from looking for Cloud, he makes a hole the size of a bowl in the wall with a punch and an angry scream. And then, for the first time since he’s met them, Zack abandons the three kids. He takes them down to see Miss Aerith, steps outside and doesn’t come back. From the sad look Miss Aerith gives Zack before he even fully steps into the church, Denzel thinks she knew what he was planning on doing. He wonders why she didn’t try to stop him from leaving. Nothing Miss Aerith does to help or calm them actually works. From the uneasy looks she casts to the flowerbed and the way she’s bitten her lip until it bleeds, Denzel can tell that even the planet has abandoned them. Sera doesn’t even look at Denzel now, she barely eats, only drinks on occasion. Her brother’s too weak to even lift his head most days. He wonders when Zack and Cloud will ever come back. One morning, while he’s sitting out on the church’s front steps, Denzel idly thinks that if they come back, it will be to the sight of three dead children. 

The creaking floorboards and footsteps coming closer to him draw him out of his thoughts. He hears fabric rustling and then looks over to see Miss Aerith sitting next to him, her green eyes looking at him seriously. She’s the first to break the silence.

“How’re you feeling, Denzel?”

He shrugs, “Fine, I guess.” His body’s actively trying to kill him and the only two parental figures he has have completely deserted him to die, but he’s fine.

Miss Aerith leans a bit closer to him like she’s about to tell him a secret.

“They didn’t abandon you, any of you. They wouldn’t have left if they didn’t have to.”

Denzel snorts softly, he’s seen adults justify their poor decisions too many times. Running back to warn the neighbors, taking in a child who has no place to go, leaving because they can’t stand the sight of ticking time bombs.

Miss Aerith sighs and lightly put her hand on Denzel’s shoulder so he can shrug it off if he doesn’t want it there. He stays completely still.

“The planet’s sick too. That’s why everyone else is sick and why I can’t do anything to help anymore. And the three men you saw? They’re part of what’s making the planet sick. So Cloud went to stop them and Zack went to help him and help bring the children back.”

Denzel gives her a sharp look. “How did you know about the men? Did the planet tell you?”

Miss Aerith smiles at him, “No, Cloud did.” She softens further at the shocked look Denzel gives her and withdraws her hand to move it towards her pocket. “He came to see me, the morning he left. He told me everything those men told him, and that he was either going to save everyone, or save the planet and bring back the children.”

Denzel moves his eyes away from her pocket to look at Miss Aerith critically.

“And you believe him?”

“I do. Cloud has never done anything to let me down and he has Zack looking out for him.”

She taps his hand lightly, motioning for him to turn his hand over and open it. As soon as he does, she gently places an earring in his palm. A silver wolf with a ring caught in its teeth, Cloud’s earring. He bows his head and gently puts the earring in his shirt pocket.

“He has to come back for that after all, so everything will be alright in the end, you’ll see.”

Even when everything goes to hell after that, with a dragon creature running rampant in the city with fire, claws, and the most inhumane screaming he’s ever heard, with a freak storm coming out of nowhere and causing the worst pain he’s ever felt, it’s all worth it in the end. Because for the first time in Denzel’s life, the people he loves came back.

They’re covered in blood, sweat, and so much dirt and grime he can barely recognize them, but they come staggering into the church supporting each other, with all of the children following closely behind them. Miss Aerith takes a long look at them, hands on her hips, before running over to them and throwing her arms around them in a deathly tight hug. And then she guides everyone, Denzel, Sera and her brother, Zack, and Cloud, and all the children over to the pews with the biggest grin Denzel’s ever seen on her face. She puts her hands onto the soil and calls out to the planet. And now, finally, the planet truly responds. Water springs up from the ground and starts falling from the sky.

The sight of the water fills him with a sudden sense of peace that he’s never felt before. But the actual sensation on the water on his skin is what really has his attention. It feels like he’s being hugged by his mother like all his scrapes and bruises are being kissed away in a featherlight touch. Glancing at the other kids, he realizes that’s exactly what’s happened. Their Geostigma, on each and every one of them, is vanishing. Miss Aerith performed a miracle, one that’s helped every person on the planet.

He looks at Zack and Cloud then. Their cuts are washing away, with the grime, dirt, and their Geostigma. Cloud’s arm is completely cleared, with only a few freckles dotting the pale skin. From the gaping tears in the turtleneck he’s always worn, Denzel sees that Zack’s right collarbone and a stretch of skin underneath, where his own Geostigma must have been was getting clearer by the second. The minute Zack turned to look at Cloud, shaking his head like a dog in the hopes of getting him wet, and sees his clear arm he shrieks. He jumps up from the pew and picks Cloud up, swinging him around, laughing, and kissing every inch of Cloud’s face that he can get to. Denzel sees the other children giggling and then jumping up in excitement when they realize their own cure has set in. He heads over to Miss Aerith instead of going over to his guardians.

“Miss Aerith? Thank you, for everything you did for us.”

Miss Aerith gives Denzel a look of surprise, then laughs and ruffles his hair.

“You’re a sweet kid, thanking me for doing what anyone would do.”

Denzel shrugs then looks at her with a smile. “Come and help me break up Zack and Cloud?” he jerks a finger at Sera and her brother coming over, looking at their guardians with bemusement and increasing amounts of second-hand embarrassment. “The three of us can’t tackle them all by ourselves and they’ll keep being gross if we let them.”

Miss Aerith laughs loudly at that and waits for the siblings to reach the two of them before pulling them close with an absolutely terrifying evil grin on her face. At her silent signal, they rush Zack and Cloud and manage to topple the two men with a combined effort of surprise and utter ruthlessness.

Denzel doesn’t think anything could ever replace his parents in his heart. But this odd family he found, made up of two ex-SOLDIERs, three orphans, and the weirdest flower girl Midgar has to offer is the best he could have ever hoped for. Laying on the dirty church floor, with Zack’s elbow digging into his chest, right where his shirt pocket is, Denzel thinks that Miss Aerith was right. That everything, no matter how loud or dirty or embarrassing, was actually for once truly alright.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fluffiest thing I've ever written, so I hope it turned out well!
> 
> And I accidentally got way, way, way too invested in this AU and made a whole bunch of notes about it, so if you have any questions or wanna know anything, feel free to ask!


End file.
